Rail Weapon
Rail Weapons are Tau and Squat[3] weapons and considered some of the most potent and fearsome weaponry employed by the Tau Empire. Rail weapons are linear accelerators that use super-conductive electrodes to accelerate a solid-shot round to hypersonic speeds. The vast kinetic energy generated by the round on impact is capable of devastating damage on enemy vehicles.[1]
Rail Weaponry first appeared in widespread Fire Caste use sometime during the First Sphere of Expansion. Early Tau rail weapons required substantial shielding in order to avoid flooding their Hammerhead and Battlesuit pilots with radiation. These shields were inevitable formed from super-dense metal alloys and contributed greatly to the size of the weapon. Progress on fixing this flaw was slow for many years as the Earth Caste tried to improve the design and create an infantry-portable weapon. The breakthrough finally came during the Second Sphere of Expansion when the Tau reverse-engineered Imperial ceramic shielding technology.[2]
Types of Rail Weapons
- Rail Rifle
- Railgun/Heavy Railgun
- Heavy Rail Rifle
- Magna Rail Rifle
- Magna Rail Cannon
Sources
- 1: Imperial Armour Volume Three - The Taros Campaign pg.158
- 2: Munitorum: Rail Rifles (Background Book)
- 3: Warhammer Community: The Mighty Hearthkyn Are the Core of the Leagues of Votann’s Armies – And Here They Are (posted 20/6/2022) (last accessed 21/6/2022)
